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VA Settles Suicide Lawsuit
WASHINGTON -- The parents of an Iraq war veteran who committed suicide after being turned away from a Veterans Administration facility in Massachusetts have agreed to a $350,000 settlement offered by the government.
Jeffrey Lucey was a 23-year-old former Marine corporal when he hanged himself in his parents' home in 2004, two weeks after being released from the Northampton Veterans Medical Center in Leeds, Mass. According to a 2007 federal complaint filed by his parents, Kevin and Joyce Lucey, VA officials claimed they couldn't make an assessment of their son's mental condition until he was alcohol free.
The settlement, offered by the Justice Department on Jan. 6, was announced today by Military Families Speak Out, an Iraq war opposition group that Lucey's parents joined after his suicide. The group said the offer was made in a letter to the Lucey's attorney, Cristobal Bonifaz, in which the government said the former Marine's "suicide while under VA care was a tragedy for the VA and the individual care providers."
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Sean Donahue, a spokesman for the group, said Lucey began showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder within months of returning from Iraq in June 2003. A year later, two weeks after being turned away by the VA facility, he hanged himself in the basement of his parents' home, Donahue said in a statement.
The VA did not respond to Military.com's request for comment.
“The US Government killed my son," Kevin Lucey said in the statement released by Military Families Speak Out. “It sent him into an illegal and reckless war and then, when he returned home, it denied him the basic health care he needed. We hope that this case serves as a wake-up call to the nation that our government must be held accountable for the suffering it has caused thousands of US military families."
Paul Rieckoff, executive director and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said the VA failed in its mission in this case.
"The loss of Jeff Lucey, and the loss of any veteran to suicide, is a tragedy," he told Military.com. "The VA was wrong and must pay. But no amount of money can ever bring back Jeffrey or ease the pain his family has experienced."
Rieckoff called the Lucey's "true American heroes" for waging their suit against the VA.
"They have courageously turned the loss of their son into a mission dedicated to saving others. And they are succeeding. The key now, is what happens next," Rieckoff said. "The VA, and our nation as a whole, must learn from this tragedy and implement change system-wide that ensures no veteran is lost to suicide in the future."
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